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Nigel Farage’s Reform UK have received its largest ever donation, with former Conservative donor Christopher Harborne handing the party £9m.
The donation – one of the largest in British political history – was made in August this year, according to filings from the Electoral Commission.
Mr Harborne, a British businessman based in Thailand, previously donated millions to Reform in 2019, when it was known as the Brexit Party, and has continued to give the party and Mr Farage cash.
Politics latest: Reform gets its largest ever donation
Between 2001 and 2022, he donated close to £2m to the Conservatives, according to Companies House.
The £9m handed to Reform UK on 1 August this year is the largest political donation on record from a living person, after Lord Sainsbury left £10m to the Conservatives in his will in 2023.
Educated in the UK, Mr Harbone is now based in Thailand, where he chairs the investment company Sherriff Global Group.
He also paid around £28,000 for Mr Farage to travel to the US for Donald Trump’s inauguration this year, and roughly £33,000 for the Reform leader to visit the president after the failed assassination attempt in the run-up to the election.
Professor Justin Fisher of Brunel University, an expert in political donations, told Sky News: “It exposes the fact that this is a person who is a British citizen but is able to influence British politics without being subject to the laws that any Reform government might bring in, any tax arrangements that a Reform might bring in.
“This is foreign money by any other name.”
The professor pointed to the fact that in the 2022 Election Act under the Conservatives, the law was changed so that British citizens could live abroad their whole lives and stay on the electoral roll, allowing them to donate.
Previously, the cap had been set at 15 years of living overseas.
He added that it was not surprising to see a person with an interest in a particular policy area – like…
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